Bolsonaro wins in Brazil
Remember the so-called “Brazilian Trump,” Jair Bolsonaro? I’ve written about him several times previously.
Today was the run-off election between Bolsonaro and a leftist opponent, and the the results are in:
Far-right lawmaker Jair Bolsonaro won Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday, riding a wave of frustration over corruption and crime that brought a dramatic swing to the right in the world’s fourth-largest democracy.
With 94 percent of ballots counted, Bolsonaro had 56 percent of the votes in the run-off election against left-wing hopeful Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT), who had 44 percent, according to the electoral authority TSE.
“We cannot continue flirting with communism … We are going to change the destiny of Brazil,” Bolsonaro said in an acceptance address in which he vowed to carry out his campaign promises to stamp out corruption after years of leftist rule.
The former army captain’s rise has been propelled by rejection of the leftist PT that ran Brazil for 13 of the last 15 years and was ousted two years ago in the midst of a deep recession and political graft scandal.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters cheered and set off fireworks outside his home in Rio de Janeiro’s Barra de Tijuca beachfront neighborhood as his victory was announced. In Brazil’s commercial capital of Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro’s win was greeted with fireworks and the honking of car horns.
“Brazil is partying. Brazil’s good people are celebrating,” said Carmen Flores, local president of Bolsonaro’s PSL party.
I wish them luck. Bolsonaro, who was severely wounded early September in an assassination attempt, is a controversial figure, to say the least.
Brazilians were more than willing to roll the dice, however. They’ve had enough of leftists being in charge.
I hope he can do for Brazil what Trump has done for America.
“What do they have to lose?”
“Far-right”. Uh-huh, sure.
Not surprisingly, Venezuela was an issue in the campaign. Former President Lula, now jailed for Petrobras corruption, was definitely a buddy of Hugo Chavez, though it might seem that was in large part for all the juicy contracts Brazilian firms could get in Chavezueala. Bolsonaro was running against Haddad, the candidate of Lula’s Workers’ Party. From The Guardian: The new Venezuela? Brazil populist Bolsonaro’s scare tactic gains traction.
According to The Guardian, this is all a smear campaign against the Worker’s Party. The Workers’ Party, The Guardian informs us, has nothing to do with Maduro and Venezuela. After all, Lula never had anything to do with Chavez; 🙂 In defense of the Guardian’s claim, Haddad, as far as I can tell, has been fairly quiet about Venezuela. Rather like Bernie Sanders was quiet about Venezuela during his Presidential campaign, though there was an endorsement of Chavezuela on his Senate website from 2011.
However, Gleisi Hoffmann, the head of the Workers’ Party, made a rather strong statement last year in support of Maduro. Why does Brazil’s Workers’ Party still support the Maduro regime in Venezuela? She was quoted last year at the Forum of São Paolo in Managua:
(PT= Brazilian Worker’s Party; PSUV- Venezuelan Chavista party.)
Which is why Bolsonaro had some success in pushing Venezuela in the campaign.
The Guardian made a comparison between the Brazilian and Colombian Presidential campaigns this year. Venezuela was also an issue in the Colombian Presidential race.
Gustavo Petro was a member of the guerrilla group M-19, which received aid from Castro in the 1980s, so it was quite accurate to point out that Petro used to belong to a guerrilla group that acted as an agent of Castro. Gustavo Petro called Chavez a “great Latin American leader.” Petro tweeted support of the July 2017 Constituent Assembly “election” in Venezuela- the one where Smartmatic stated there were at least a million fraudulent votes.
Neo, I didn’t see the Edit option after I posted my last comment.
Mary Anastasia O’Grady had this to say at the WSJ.
She goes on to say the that his “tough on crime” stance will be very difficult against the very powerful organized crime syndicates. Also, he likes some state owned enterprises and some economic nationalism, but O’Grady says the economic reforms are now possible that could only be dreamed of before.
Yup. I missed a couple things on my comment and got no edit option.
What are the odds that someone will again try assassinating him?
Corruption + socialism = big money at stake.
test
I was testing to see if I got the edit option, and I did. I’m not sure what the problem is for those of you who aren’t getting it. Let me know if it continues.
The leftists of South America’s attempts to distance themselves from Venezuela, Maduro, and Chavez are not succeeding because the evidence of alliance was too recent and too obvious for the public to miss. It is my hope that the opportunity afforded to the Right to put sound economic policies in place is not squandered by their own abuses of power.
The correct policy of the U.S. is to build alliances in LatAm based on institutions of democracy and not based on personal connections.
FYI: I just added this with the edit function.
I, too, wish him luck, he is going to need it.
Forget it, Jake, it’s LatinAmericaTown.
(I’ll be very happily surprised to be wrong, though.)
neo on October 28, 2018 at 10:30 pm at 10:30 pm said:
test
I was testing to see if I got the edit option, and I did. I’m not sure what the problem is for those of you who aren’t getting it. Let me know if it continues.
* * *
I have noticed that the problem is intermittent: sometimes you get the edit function; sometimes, you don’t. No clue yet what triggers the difference. Software-wise, I would look for a module that has different access points, with some parameters not being set correctly on one of them.
(and I did get the edit on this comment)
but will it happen on this one, or not?
(why yes, it did!)
what about this one?
(still okay)
“This has only been a test. In the event of a real emergency, your computer will die.”
I don’t know if Bolsonaro is the man to reverse course in Brazil, but if he can move Brazil in the right direction, it will be huge good news for the continent and for the hemisphere.
(I almost always see the edit function, and did this time.)
It is not, most emphatically not a “roll of the dice”, as Neo puts it.
A shift in direction towards economic sense and rule of law is not a “roll”, a chance, a risk. The dice rolls are reserved for those who believe in the Bernies, Chavezes, Obamas, Clintons. Afterwards, always asked after such a a dice roll is “What happened? Why are we in a ditch?” “Because you are gullible suckers” is the correct answer.
Brazil is following a pattern we also see in Europe. They have not seen the immigrant crisis that Europe has but they might be a target for Venezuelans who can get that far,
Latin American countries have a menu of persistent problems, but no. 1 is street crime. I’d have to check, but I’d wager that responsibility for crime control is with provincial and local government in Brazil. The central government’s contribution would be a crackdown on racketeering, drug trafficking, and local police corruption, as well as promotional activities and amendments to provincial and local government finance.
As long as cities and counties are properly financed and have optimal boundaries, the principal contribution of superordinate layers of government should be to see to it that the courts are properly staffed and moving the traffick along, to see to it that the prisons have ample plant, equipment, and staff, and to see to it that local police have technical assistance beneficial to them.
Perhaps I am being over optimistic, but I sense a Republican wave coming this November, voters moving toward Capitalism and not Communism,.
This sense based, in large part, on popular enthusiasm, on the huge numbers of people attending Trump rallies, and waiting many hours in line just for a chance to get into the building.
People this determined, it would seem to me, are likely to vote.
Meanwhile, Obama–out campaigning for Democrat candidates–has trouble filling the bleachers in a high school gym.
Then there is the #Walkaway movement, and now Blaxit.
BTW–I just stumbled on some extremely powerful political videos by the very eloquent former Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory, a 74 year old black attorney, minister, and Democrat who “changed” to become a Republican.
Here’s Guillory on American Slavery http://elbertguillorysamerica.com/articles/Elbert-on-American-slavery
See also https://elbertguillorysamerica.com and his other youtube videos about his political philosophy
The “ancient regime” is crumbling everywhere. In LatAm it is a very ancient, indeed. It is a continuation of the Roman Empire, with its system of patronage, when 200-300 families are running the state for generations. It is called Mafia rule in Sicily and Southern Italy, or corruption, but really this is the way nations are ruled in all remnants of the Roman Empire, including its colonies in Latin America, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain and Portugal.
MikeK,
Brazil is already, and has been, suffering from the Venezuelan refugee crisis. See:
https://amp-ewn-co-5251%2524s
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-latin-america-45338769
The threat to Brazil from their northern neighbor’s misery was probably a factor in the election.
Roy Nathanson:
The threat to Brazil from their northern neighbor’s misery was probably a factor in the election.
In the recent Colombian presidential election, 2018, lefty candidate Gustavo Petro did best in the Departments that were farthest from Colombia.
Putumayo 69.6% inland border w Ecuador
Cauca 65% SW on Pacific Ocean, one Department away from Ecuador
Nariño 63.9% on Pacific Ocean, borders Ecuador.
Gustavo Petro’s worst showing was in Norte de Santander Department, where he got 18% of the vote. Not only does Norte de Santander border Venezuela, its capital city of Cúcuta has Colombia’s main border crossing with Venezuela.
ndeed. It is a continuation of the Roman Empire, with its system of patronage, when 200-300 families are running the state for generations.
There are 20 Latin American countries. Their median population is about 15 million. Which of them do you fancy is being run by 250 families? Can you name any of the families?
To Art Deco: Every one of them. Different families for different countries, of course. The names of the families involved is better to ask from local people, they know them for sure. In Bulgaria I know the local Don in charge of the whole town where I own a flat.
Sergey
The “ancient regime” is crumbling everywhere. In LatAm it is a very ancient, indeed. It is a continuation of the Roman Empire, with its system of patronage, when 200-300 families are running the state for generations.
That depends. In Colombia, pretty much so, I would believe. In Venezuela, not so, as government access to oil revenue has churned things up in the last century. Chile is an interesting case. Yes, there is more family control of big corporations than in the US. However, this is far from a closed-off elite. In looking at the wealthiest families in Chile, there are quite a few non-Spanish family surnames- the surnames of immigrants.
Forbes 2016 World’s Billionaires: Meet The Richest People in Chile,
Juan Yarur Lolas
Matte family
Another famous family in Chile is the Alessandri family, which includes two presidents. Italian immigrant family. Jorge Alessandri was President of Chile from 1958-1864. He was also Chairman of the Board of Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones paper mill (La Papelera) -Matte’s company-when Allende was trying to nationalize it.
While Sebastián Piñera has deep roots in the Chilean establishment- including having Chilean Presidents and an Inca emperor in his family tree, most of his wealth came from his own entrepreneurial efforts beginning with credit cards in the Pinochet era.
Of the ten-wealthiest, five derived their wealth from those of immigrant background or were immigrants themselves. (Fontbana-Luksic, Paulmann, Saieh Bendeck, Rossi, Yarur Ray). The Matte family began its wealth with a textile store in Santiago in the 1850s, so they were hardly wealthy grandees in origin.
Thanks for your hand-waving, Sergey. It’s been an education.